Here're two Australian artists from Melbourne who've made illustrating cars their job. After meeting at a Melbourne motor show a couple of years ago, they decided to come together and showcase their works at motor shows all over the world. We found them at the recently concluded Singapore Motorshow where they were there to display their works.

Darren Argaet

Darren Argaet who's a self-taught artist in this area has an amazing vision for creating visually stunning illustrations. Having created art for more than six years, his work can be seen in acrylic paintings and, gorgeous bonnets and bodies of cars in his custom-made works. In his native Australia, Darren has already won numerous awards on a national level including the AUTOSALON Compeition in the Elite Class for Best Graphics.

"I enjoy airbrushing and like cars and being around cars; for the last ten years I've been to all races and this's more of an enjoyment than watching car- racing," Darren shares.

In 2000, he started his company Air Xpress'n, which specialises in custom and commissioned artworks. He starts painting only after doing ample visual research for his art, by first looking at various photos he has photographed as well as some from the Internet. Using his pencil to first sketch out markings on the car, it's then spray-painted and transformed into a stunning visual - especially the spiderman one on display at the motorshow - that calls out for your immediate attention when it drives pass.

You can reach Darren Argaet at airxpressn@hotmail.com

Fredd Briggs

If you happened to find his works slightly familiar, you may have seen it in a series of stamps commissioned by Australian Post to celebrate Australian Motorsport in time with the 2002 Australian Grand Prix. With a career spending more than thirty years, he's a highly sought after illustrator in the business. His work has been used in advertising campaigns for the major car brands, V8 Supercar designs, Indy Cars promotional posters and also limited edition prints for Porsche and Ford Tickford Racing.

One of his career highlights has to be the stunning painting of Michael Schumacher and his winning Ferrari race car, which is slightly wider than the real-life race car. This took him just about 160 hours, which is fast compared to industry standards. Being a Aussie, he has also painted many pictures of fellow Australian Mark Webber in Formula 1 racing.

As with his spur of the moment decison to paint the larger-than-life ferrai, he has also ventured into what he called
' 1 Wheelers', which is an abstract art of normal cars-something he and his pub mates felt look visually different and interesting.

You can reach Fredd Briggs at
fred@fredhot.com,
www.fredhot.com